Rolling Meadows Plans To Honor Its Ranch-house Past By Reproducing A 1953-style Home As A Museum, With The Help Of The Firm That Built Much Of The Town.

He recounted how wealthier residents in neighboring Palatine and Arlington Heights reacted with dismay as builders constructed--assembly-line style--the ranch homes. There were three models to be built along curvy streets because, officials believe, that made it harder for visitors to glimpse around the bends and see the same style homes repeating themselves.

Alice Sinkevitch, executive director of Chicago's chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said she finds Rolling Meadows' idea intriguing.

In 1999, Park Forest opened a house during its 50th anniversary, commemorating the 1950s.

"Ours is the space-hog generation," she said, referring to modern-day homes that dwarf ranch homes. "I think people would be fascinated by it, and it would be a good lesson on perspective, on what people had been through in terms of housing situations."

For those who scoff at the idea that history can begin only 50 years ago, Tim Samuelson, curator of architecture at the Chicago Historical Society, offered this observation:

"Every era goes through a period when the artifacts are too new to be old and too old to be new," he said. "People look back on it and may smirk, and say, `Oh, I remember that stuff. It's out of date. It's junk.'

"If enough time goes by, you have new generations . . . and it looks pretty good again," he said.

Samuelson, who is restoring his 1949 Mies van der Rohe apartment with 1950s' artifacts, finds beauty in his Sunbeam toaster, from its shiny chrome top to the crumb tray that pulls out from underneath.